“Results from a phase I study in 38 patients with metastatic breast cancer demonstrated a clinical benefit rate (stable disease ≥ 6 months) of 26.3%. including a partial response by RECIST criteria in three patients who experienced progression during prior tamoxifen therapy, according to Matthew P. Goetz, MD, of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and colleagues.”

“Nearly one-third of women with breast cancer went against their doctor’s advice and chose not to begin or complete the recommended adjuvant anti-cancer therapy to kill residual tumor cells following surgery, according to a study led by a Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health researcher.

“A survey that included 2,754 breast cancer patients in Florida and Pennsylvania during a two-year period found that this ‘treatment discordance’ – not following a doctor’s recommended treatment plan in its entirety – was more likely among patients who reported a general distrust of medical institutions and insurers. The patients’ trust or distrust of their own doctors did not seem to be a factor.”

“As research of early-stage estrogen receptor (ER)-positive breast cancer continues, experts are relying more on extended adjuvant hormonal therapy with aromatase inhibitors, but are concerned about patient quality of life (QoL) with such treatment.

” ‘My passion is to really try to figure out how to make the side effects of these therapies more tolerable and how to help women be able to actually have reasonably good and normal QoL while they’re taking these therapies, so that we can increase compliance,’ said Michelle E. Melisko, MD.”

“U.S. regulators have granted a priority review to AstraZeneca’s ovarian cancer drug Lynparza as a treatment for breast cancer, putting it on track for potential approval in the new disease area during the first quarter of 2018.

“The medicine, which is being jointly developed and marketed with Merck under a deal struck in July, is the first poly ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP) drug to be considered for use outside ovarian cancer.”

” ‘Pathologic complete response (pCR) after neoadjuvant [therapy] has strong prognostic impact in HER2 disease,’ wrote study authors led by Ulrike Nitz, MD, of the West German Study Group GmbH in Moenchengladbach, Germany. The WSG-ADAPT HER2+/HR− trial assessed whether dual blockade with trastuzumab and pertuzumab could achieve similar rates of pCR in those with strong early response to dual blockade along with chemotherapy.”

“A self-controlled clinical trial by Hanai et al investigating the efficacy of cryotherapy for the prevention of chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy in patients with breast cancer treated with paclitaxel has found that cryotherapy resulted in a clinically and statistically significant reduction in patient-reported subjective symptoms, diminished objective signs (tactile and thermosensory), and prevention of manipulative dexterity. These study findings suggest cryotherapy may be an effective strategy in the prevention of neuropathy in patients undergoing paclitaxel treatment. These study findings were published in theJournal of the National Cancer Institute.“

“The FDA has granted a priority review to a new drug application (NDA) for abemaciclib (Verzenio) for use in combination with an aromatase inhibitor for the frontline treatment of women with hormone receptor (HR)-positive, HER2-negative advanced or metastatic breast cancer, according to Eli Lilly and Company, the manufacturer of the CDK4/6 inhibitor.

“The NDA was based on data from the phase III MONARCH 3 trial in which the addition of abemaciclib to anastrozole or letrozole reduced the risk of progression or death by 46% compared with the nonsteroidal aromatase inhibitor (NSAI) alone for previously untreated patients with HER2-negative, HR-positive advanced breast cancer.”